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Hello CSTA Washington members and friends!
Can you believe it’s already February? Between the Seahawks’ Super Bowl 60 win giving us something big to celebrate and the start of the second semester for most educators, this time of year feels especially full. As the content becomes more abstract and other workplace obligations grow more demanding, remember to honor student integrity, curiosity, and creativity in order to reignite the joys of teaching CS. Also continue to build relationships with fellow CS educators by engaging in our upcoming CSTAWA events.
| | CSTA Washington Bylaws Vote Update | | |
The membership of CSTA Washington voted to adopt the updated bylaws. The vote was initially announced in early January in a blog post and voting information was sent to CSTA Washington members on January 14th with voting closing two weeks later.
As a reminder, our mission has been updated to say:
The mission of the Chapter is to further the mission of the CSTA and to
| | Provide community, professional development, and advocacy for Washington educators to help them deliver equitable, engaging, high-quality CS education for all K-12 students that ensures responsible technology creation and use so that everyone can thrive in a world powered by computing. | |
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Next, two of our current board members will sign these bylaws and they'll be approved by CSTA National.
Thank you all to those of you who voted!
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CSTA Washington will be hosting a booth at the Northwest Council for Computer Education (NCCE) conference at the Seattle Convention Center, February 25-27, 2026.
If you are attending, please stop by, say hi, and get a CSTA Washington rubber duck. We have a new shipment coming in for the conference.
CSTA Washington will also be hosting an informal, after-hours meetup on Thursday Feb 26 at 5PM. The meetup will be near the Seattle Convention Center, but the official location is TBD. You do not need to be an NCCE attendee to participate in the meetup.
In addition, CSTA Washington Treasurer Lawrence Tanimoto will be presenting a session on “How to Grow CS Education at your District/School” on Wednesday, February 25, 4:00 pm–4:50 pm that features the dashboards and reports described in Washington CS and CTE Education Analytics 2025 and in the Data Corner article below. Please attend if you have the opportunity.
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Virtual Lunch and Learn, AI and Equity PD
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This event will feature special presentations, “Engaging the Disengaged: Making CS Fun and Equitable!” and “Man V. Machine, AI and Copyright Infringement”, “The CS Education Data Dashboard” and more! Free resources and tools to be shared!! Also, 3 free clock hours are available for those that attend the session and complete the "homework"!
Date: Saturday March 21, 2026
Time: 12:00-2:00pm
See event details here:
https://community.csteachers.org/events/simple-registration?CalendarEventKey=87a5a29e-3b72-4cc1-8f56-019c2ea99a28
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Save the date: STEP CS Networking event
Save the date!!! Our annual STEP CS/CSTA Washington is scheduled for April 27, 2026!
Students in the STEP CS program is a stay for a 5th (spring) quarter in their Masters in Education program to take classes in CS pedagogy and work on a CS teaching certification. CSTAWA annually hosts an evening of activities, networking, and food to warmly welcome these new teachers to a community that is passionate about supporting equitable and inclusive computing education.
Date: April 27, 2026
Time: 6:30-8:30pm
Where: The Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, 4th floor of the Gates Center
Right now we’re looking for two things: a) people who are interested in helping to organize/run the event and b) someone/some organization who is interested in sponsoring the food for the event. Please email washington@csteachers.org if you’re able to help in either regard.
Otherwise, stay tuned for the event sign up!
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Advocating for CS: Washington AP Day at the Capitol
Funding for low-income students taking AP College Board exams in Washington state is no longer fully funded in our WA state education budget. CSTA 2026 IMPACT Fellow, Anthony Barba, attended this event on January 25th to speak with state representatives about the importance of this funding for low-income students taking AP computer science courses. AP computer science courses are unique in that they not only offer students a chance to earn college credit, but also serve as a pathway to meet graduation requirements in mathematics and science.
Read the full article on the CSTA WA website 👉https://www.cstawa.org/advocating-for-cs-washington-ap-day-at-the-capitol/
| CSTA National Conference Scholarships Are Here! | |
CSTA national is offering scholarships to cover the cost of registration to the annual CSTA conference, which will be held July 13–15 in New Orleans! Applications are open to all CSTA members and will be accepted until March 9. Applicants will be notified of their acceptance status by the end of April. Learn more and apply
👉 https://csteachers.org/csta-conference-scholarships/
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Free Classroom
Resources Share
Data Analysis x Football🏈
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In honor of the Seahawks’ Super Bowl win, we’re sharing two free data analysis activities from TuvaLabs.
For elementary students, check out Comparing Football Data with Picture Graphs
👉https://tuva.la/4jOd6gg.
For secondary classrooms, explore Effectiveness of Football Helmets
👉https://tuva.la/3zJBJG4.
In both activities, students use data visualization tools to explore real datasets and make sense of patterns and relationships.
Free Valentine’s Day Resource 💘
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If you’re looking for a Valentine-themed activity, try out this MakeCode Arcade game building tutorial where students will learn to code a game with hearts, arrows and cupids!
Activity 👉 https://arcade.makecode.com/#tutorial:/tutorials/valentine
| | CTE and CS Data Dashboard | | |
CSTA Washington has created several dashboards and reports based on the 2023-24 K–12 Computer Science Education Data Summary Report published by OSPI Computer Science in the summer of 2025.
These dashboards and reports help educators understand trends in computer science (CS) education and Career & Technical Education (CTE) across Washington from 2019–2024. These dashboards and reports show how CS enrollments, teacher numbers, and course offerings have changed statewide, by ESD, by district, and by school with detailed breakdowns by gender, race/ethnicity, income, grade level, ELL status, and disability status. These dashboards also include similar data for CTE education, showing demographic student enrollment in the 14 national Career Clusters, helping schools and districts plan and make data-driven decisions.
Although functionally and data complete, these dashboards and reports are currently in beta. CSTA Washington welcomes feedback for improving these dashboard and reports.
To learn more, visit our article on the CSTA WA website or attend CSTA Washington’s presentation “How to Grow CS Education at your District/School” at NCCE on Feb 25.
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Thank you for being part of our community and for inspiring the next generation of technology creators. We’re grateful to be rebuilding this community together and appreciate your ongoing commitment to computer science education across Washington. Your passion and dedication are what make CSTA Washington strong!
With gratitude,
The CSTA WA Team
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